Mis-sold a wifi upgrade and ended up with the Ombudsman

[TimBarber]

Anyone ended up going to the Ombudsman as a result of being mois-sold an EE service?

I purchased an upgraded wifi service having been told it was compatible with my existing EE MESH system. Despite repeated assurances that it should work, they eventually admitted that they were wrong.

I asked for them to deliver the service that I had contracted  for in good faith but  the best they could do was to refer our dispute to the Communications Ombudsman.  For anyone who hasn't dealt with the Ombudsman before, they are very helpful but sadly pretty powerless and rely on good faith on the part of the supplier to remedy the situation. Sadly this is absent in EE these days.

EE offered me GBP30 compensation and a letter of apology, which I promptly declined.

As a result they will be losing my broadband and phone contracts which are worth in excess of GBP3000 per year. It's hard to imagine that a company can be so uncommercial when the cost of remedying the situation was around GBP160 over the life of the contract and that's assuming retail costs, not wholesale. 

They used to be the best but not these days. The people I was dealing with as the complaint escalated were inept beyond belief and at best could be described as over-promoted clerics.

[JimM11]

@TimBarber Standard compensation applied from the EE side, no one has any access or knowledge of who/what/why this has all come about for you, public Forum with no account access.

[Chris_B]

@TimBarber  so at a guess and it is a guess you went from a smart hub to a smart hub plus or a smart hub pro and you was hoping that the smart hub Wi-Fi discs we’re going to work with the new router .    It’s not compatible and I’m sure there’s a post on here about what is and isn’t compatible.    And as you say you were told it should be compatible not that it will be compatible.  
Nothing stopping you from using the old kit still.  

[TimBarber]

They told me that the old kit wouldn't work with my new service but then 24 hours later someone countered that and said it'd be fine. The consistency of responses was very poor from the EE team.

As for the use of the English language in my initial draft, the word "should" was perhaps poorly chosen. There was never any question at the time of the purchase that the new router would work with the existing MESH. I asked the question at least twice and in subsequent calls to them they confirmed it was compatible. I think it was the 3rd person I spoke to that actually knew that the previous information was incorrect.

[TimBarber]

To be entirely honest with you I'm not sure what you are saying here.

[JimM11]

@TimBarber EE's standard compensation is £30, that's it lock/stock and barrel, you reported that the mesh was an oops, you asked EE to deal, they took the option not too, complaints were raised, resolution was not found and at the end of it all, both not happy, you should have been informed that you are free to go, but you have not said or detailed that information. From your reply to @Chris_B it is clear that new smart wireless extenders would have sorted the issue but as to the reason why EE chose not to do then that is the unknown, lack of what does/does not/needs to be done at the EE side, falls down a little or may be a lot.

[TimBarber]

Thanks Jim

It was the attitude of the people I was dealing with that really wound me up. They offered to cancel the contract but it was a "here and now" offer ie accept it now or it's off the table. Such an attitude only serves to wind the customer up and bizarrely it's an acceptance that they are losing that customer whether the deal is accepted or not because they now feel totally fed up by the way they have been treated.

To lose >£6000 of business over the life of the contract for something that would have cost perhaps £50-£75  to resolve just seems like a crazy lack of understanding on EE's part.

[JimM11]

@TimBarber You summed it all up exactly.!

[KeithofLondon]

How did you get on with the Ombudsman?

[TimBarber]

They were very helpful and professional but EE know that they can't force results, so the standard GBP30 and a letter of aology is all that was offered. I rejected both because the financial reward is insulting and an apology from a busienss acting unethically really isn't much benefit either.